FAIRPORT, N.Y., July 18 -- Corning Tropel Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Corning Inc., announced the release of its new line of long working distance Deep Ultraviolet micro-objectives, the µCAT (microCAT) family. Micro-objectives are used by the semiconductor and related industries to inspect images printed on wafers and photomasks.
    Typically, end users of micro-objectives order custom lens designs to fit into their ultraviolet (UV) systems. With the Corning Tropel µCAT family as an OEM solution, customers are now able to purchase "off-the-shelf," standardized micro-objectives for their UV systems. Also, because the µCAT family has standard specifications, most customers receive the micro-objective in a matter of weeks, as compared to longer lead times for custom lenses.
    "We've seen significant industry acceptance for this new line of products," said Louie Denes, manager, sales and marketing for Corning Tropel Corp. "The OEM customers we're working with are able to prototype systems much faster and achieve resolution performance of their products that exceeds expectations."